Setting

Overview of History:
The early history of the world is difficult to ascertain, for obvious reasons, so most information that remains is more legend than fact. It's theorized that the first inhabitants of the world were Dragons, while the creator gods still put most of their effort into the Feywild. Slowly, both worlds, apparently treated as experiments by various higher powers, were populated with different beings, and many creation myths and ancient legends are quite contradictory. Eventually, the two planes were mixed, and cataclysmic wars between the beings of both planes raged for unknown ages. Eventually, the Yymerodraeth o Fey, an empire of fey, primarily ruled by the immortal 'High Elves' became ascendant, by way of their immortal strategists and powerful fey magic, and slowly laid low the lands of other races. At the empire's height, the high elves ruled supreme over most of the known world, their imperial rule supported by local Satraps promoted among subjugated races. The only lands of the old world not controlled were the distant, frigid homelands of the Giants, and the Dwarven Islands, though some scholars predict that had the cataclysmic and sudden fall of Ymerodraeth not happened, the Dwarves would have eventually lost their war.

The end of Ymerodraeth came about fairly suddenly, at least by the measures of ageless beings such as the High Elves. Revolution and secession had always been a faint concern for the Fey Empire, but the relatively insignificant lifespans and lack of power of their subjects meant that most such rebellions were snuffed out, sooner or later. However, 8 centuries before the current era, a large rebellion consisting of the plurality of a large human satrapy of the empire coincided with what is generally agreed to be the conception of modern Wizardry, mages that could utilize magic without inherent ability or pacts with the ruling Fey. This rebellion, supported by many of these new, uncontrolled, human magicians, meant that it quickly became one of the most successful rebellions in the history of Yymerodraeth, a fact that was only exacerbated when the Dwarves quickly began to support the rebellion by sending supplies, weapons, experienced troops and training. The climax of the rebellion came when a ringleader of the rebellion, who's true name is lost to time, was captured, and publicly executed in the capital of the human satrapy. However, it seems that this unnamed man purposefully allowed himself to be executed, to draw the attention away from an assassination plot. The death of this man is said to have coincided with the sudden assassination of several ancient, powerful high elves, and this event, combined with the sudden invigoration and radicalization against Yymerodraeth by humanity and it's allies created a shift in the fabric of reality. In the same moments, the unnamed rebel's spirit sycretized with the human race's desire for freedom, and ascended to godhood as The Martyr, the patron deity of humanity.

At the same time, the link between the world and the Feywild, which had always been tenuous at best, were finally broken nearly entirely, an event know as the Cataclysm of Ymerodraeth. In the span of a day, more than half of the heartlands of the empire sunk below the sea, and a majortiy of the Fey, including most of the immortal High Elves, were either banished from this plane or outright killed in the sudden arcane feedback that spread across the world, it's epicenter in the capital of Ymerodraeth. Nearly overnight, the Fey Empire fell, only the barest bit of continued power left in the remains of it's capital province, it's ruling class nearly extinguished, the majority of it's populace being the most mundane and mortal of the Fey.

Eventually, over the centuries, the largest and most successful human domain, the Kingdom of Brynedd, grew to become one of the most powerful on the Central Isles, and certainly the most powerful among the human lands. Only a decades before the current era, the Kingdom of Brynedd, under King Athorn III Brynedd, had grown to it's peak, and even begun to expand out from the Central Isles, subjugating Gazryn, the homeland of the Centaurs, as well as colonizing the mysterious southwestern lands. However, the peak of the Kingdom's power was shortlived, as King Athorn III's ambition turned into a war of conquest against the neighboring Kingdom of Atrebates. Despite the King's eagerness, however, the parliament of Brynedd was less than enthused, and in the face of their protests, the King forcibly dissolved parliament, and began to force 'loans' on the nobility, as well as diverting funds from the navy and away from the fledgling colonies. Many people in the Kingdom of Brynedd, already flirting with ideas of popular sovereignty and even more drastic ideas, were spurred on by such actions, easily perceived as tyrannical. Before the Athorn's war against the Kingdom of Atrebates could be concluded, a revolutionary army lead by disgruntled nobles and parliamentarians, rose in Brynedd, and began a bloody civil war against the royalists. Quickly, an alliance was forged between the revolutionaries and the Kingdom of Atrebates, and within a year, king Athorn III had been captured and his forces disbanded. A trial was performed, and despite a lack of precedent, the King was sentenced to death for treason, tyranny, and murder.

Since the end of the civil war, the victors, reforming a government out of former parliamentarians and nobility took charge, under the leadership of Lord Protector Oscar Fosberry. However, things aren't perfect in the Protectorate in the decade since the death of King Athorn - his son, Prince Eadred, was quick to retreat to the colonies and form his own government in the chaos after the civil war, leading to a sort of cold war that has drastically slowed the Protectorate's colonial efforts. Internally, there have been many instances of noble families being accused of royalist sentiments, before being quickly and bloodily killed by more revolutionary members of the government, their lands and wealth going straight back to the Lord Protector and the state, leading to a state of fear, and even rebellious whispers that the Lord Protector may be just as tyrannical as the King before him, if not more so.

(Yeah, a lot of this is pretty human-centric, but I wasn't sure how to split setting info between races and kingdoms in a coherent way. If nothing else, these are the most important happenings, but regardless, none of it is SUPER important to memorize. Honestly I probably didn't need this much info in the first place, but hey.)

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